Turtle Lake and the legend of 'dragon vein suppression' in Saigon

The design only has a large concrete pillar inserted into the octagonal lake, Turtle Lake (District 3) is associated with the legend of the suppression of the dragon vein by President of the Republic of Vietnam Nguyen Van Thieu.

Turtle Lake in the center of Ho Chi Minh City, officially known as International Square, is the intersection of Pham Ngoc Thach, Tran Cao Van and Vo Van Tan streets. Surrounding the lake are many restaurants, bars and cafes, so this area is always bustling from morning to night.

Monument built by the Frenchearly 20th centuryat the location of Turtle Lake today.Photo archive

OriginalThe location of Turtle Lake in 1790 was the Kham Khuyet gate of the Bat Quai citadel (also known as Quy citadel) built by order of King Gia Long. However, after the rebellion of Le Van Khoi (1833-1835), King Minh Mang destroyed the Bat Quai citadel and built a smaller citadel called Phung citadel (Gia Dinh citadel). The location of the Kham Khuyet gate became a point outside the citadel and connected the road outside the west of the citadel straight down to the river wharf (Road No. 16 - Catinat and now Dong Khoi).

After capturing Saigon in 1859, the French destroyed the entire Gia Dinh citadel. In 1878, a water tower was built at the location of present-day Turtle Lake to provide drinking water for the residents in the area. By 1921, the water tower was demolished and the road was widened to Mayer Street (now Vo Thi Sau Street). From then on, this location became the intersection of roads as it is today.

Also at this location, the French built a bronze statue of three soldiers with a small lake, to mark the invasion and symbolize the French domination of Indochina. Therefore, people often called it the Three-shaped Square. These statues existed until 1956 when they were demolished by the Republic of Vietnam Government, leaving only a small lake. The intersection was also renamed the Soldiers' Square.

Turtle Lake in 1972, when there was still a bronze turtle in the middle. Photo courtesy

After the French withdrew from Vietnam, the location of the Soldier Square became the traffic circle of Duy Tan (now Pham Ngoc Thach) and Tran Quy Cap (now Vo Van Tan - Tran Cao Van) streets. The exact time of construction of Turtle Lake has not been determined, but some documents say it was built in 1965-1967. The designer was architect Nguyen Ky.

During the years 1970 to 1974, Turtle Lake was restored and renovated by the Republic of Vietnam government. This included the erection and adjustment of five tall concrete pillars shaped like five open hands, resembling flower petals supporting a pistil.

This new project also includes a traffic circle with a diameter of nearly 100 meters, decorated with trees and a large octagonal fountain with 4 spiral walkways leading to the central area and an alloy turtle statue carrying a large stone stele on its back. Therefore, it is popularly known as Turtle Lake.

Initially, this intersection was named Freedom Soldier Square, and in 1972 it was renamed International Square. However, in early 1976, the stele and the turtle were destroyed in an explosion. Although the turtle is no longer there, people still call it by its old name instead of its official name.

Turtle Lake today. Photo: Trung Son

Due to its rather strange architecture, Turtle Lake is associated with the legend of the suppression of the dragon vein of the President of the Republic of Vietnam Nguyen Van Thieu. According to the account of author Huynh Ba Thanh in the book The Case of Turtle Lake (Tuoi Tre Publishing House 1982), there is an oral legend that in 1967, when General Nguyen Van Thieu became President of the Republic of Vietnam, he invited a famous Chinese feng shui master to examine the land at the Independence Palace.

This feng shui master praised the palace for being built on a dragon vein. The dragon's head was right at the Independence Palace (hence the name of the Independence Palace as Dragon Head Palace) and its tail was at the Soldiers' Square. Although it was prosperous, because the dragon's tail was always wriggling, its career was not sustainable. It was necessary to cast a spell by casting a large turtle to restrain the dragon's tail from wriggling, in order to maintain the presidency for a long time.

Therefore, Mr. Nguyen Van Thieu listened and built an octagonal lake, modeled after the Bagua diagram, a feng shui symbol often used to suppress evil spirits by the ancients, and placed a large bronze turtle right in the middle of the lake.Because of this, many people believe that the tall tower architecture resembles a sword or a giant nail hammered into the lake to hold the dragon's tail, and the lake area is in the shape of a bagua, with the yin and yang symbol in the middle.

According to VNE